Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: The Sparkle of Leadership
by KibchiRedanlae
Summary: Two humans are sent to the Pokémon world; one sweet, one sour. They make a grab for power as they discover its seedy underbelly.
1. Down the Bunnelby Hole

Chapter 1 - Down the Bunnelby Hole

Location - ? 1F

He woke up from the fog of unconsciousness in a daze; staring upward at the forest canopy, he took note of each and every detail, the sun shining down through the cracks in the leaves onto his face, the sound of a creek flowing nearby... and how uncomfortably close the ground was to his head.

"Where a-am I? How did I get here?" He thought.

"Come t-to think of it... who **AM** I?" Amnesia. Not a good sign. A slimy feeling all over his head. An even worse sign. Rather clumsily, he staggered over to the creek and stared into its depths hoping his reflection would give some answers as to why he felt so WEIRD. Gazing into the revealed to him something he would've rather not known. His arms were gone. His legs were gone. The only thing left of him was his head; his slimy, orange, purple cheeked head.

He was a Goomy. A shiny Goomy, which was nice, but becoming a Pokémon isn't the kind of thing you can take well! How would he go about without his limbs? Or his ability to speak? Or his memories? He racked his brain hoping to find some clue regarding his situation...

"Bah! I c-can't remember a thing! I don't even know my-" He shouted as a flash of recognition gave him what he so desperately wanted.

"Terry. M-my name's Terry." He breathed a sigh of relief as he spoke. Having some form of identity gave him a calming feeling. He was now lucid enough to turn his thoughts from panicking to escape. He left the forest clearing and stumbled east through the trees.

* * *

Location - ? 2F

"Move it, bottom feeder!" the Persian shouted. She hated it when he shouted. It usually meant having her collar pulled tighter and she hated that. She hated just about everything at the moment, now that she thought about it, but that was mainly because of the situation she was in.

About a week ago, she had woken up in the middle of nowhere with no memory of who she was except her name, Cereza, and the fact that she used to be human. Key words being 'used to be'. A quick look in any reflective surface would show her big serpentine eyes and leafy tail. She was a Snivy now, and she was also a slave to the degenerate currently pulling her through the forest. He had captured her and locked a slave collar around her neck yesterday, and he had been trying to break her spirit since, but she was damn well determined to spite him as much as she could. It hurt like hell, forcing him to drag her around like this, but the look on his face made it all worth it.

"How about no?" She said in a condescending fashion.

"Start walking and stop your squawking!" He shouted, as if what she was saying was unintelligible babbling. She sighed. He was always like this. Always yelling, always ignoring her. Eventually, he stopped walking and said

"Alright, we're staying here for the night, now... get... over... here...!" and started yanking at her collar. He yanked so hard, and it dug so deep into her neck that a trickle of blood started to flow out of it. She grunted with pain as she tried to resist his tugging, but her legs gave out from the pain and she found herself next to her captor. "Right, I'm going to set up camp now, you keep watch like you did last night!" He shouted. Cereza rolled her eyes at him.

"Sure, whatever." she said, but instead of watching, she spent the longest while using her vines to try to undo the knot, but like last night, it wouldn't budge. Was she going about it the wrong way? There had to be something she was missing. She stood up with a sigh and started looking around the tree. Hopefully, there would be something nearby that-

"Oof!" she said, slipping on what appeared to be orange, glittery, snail trail. Suddenly, inspiration struck. She scooped up the slime, and using her vines, spread it around the inside of the collar. Then she braced herself as she slowly pulled the collar down her body with her vines. It scratched and cut into her as she slipped it down, making her wince and tear up a bit, but after what seemed like an eternity, she managed to get out. Placing it on the ground quietly so as to not alert the Persian, she darted into the forest, following the only path she could take without getting caught, the snail trail.

* * *

Location - ? 3F

Terry had traveled and fought through the thick groves and dense grass and soon the trees began to thin out.

"I th-think I'm getting the hang of this 'sliding on the ground' thing." he said to himself. Before he could exit the forest, however, there was a sudden unintelligible shouting as a pair of Vulpix with face paint darted in front of him.

"Outsider! Trespasser! Your kind is not welcome in the Noblesse Woods!" they shouted, "Destroy!"

Before Terry could react, they barreled into him with a synchronized Quick Attack and sent him reeling backward. He managed to recover in time to see them start shooting Embers at him, so he ducked, dodged, and shot Bubble attacks when he had the chance. Eventually, the Vulpix tried another tag-team Quick Attack, but Terry managed to follow their movements and backed up at the last second so that they collided with each other instead of striking him. He took this chance to unleash as many Bubble attacks as he could, but even with all that, the Vulpix hung on. They had him surrounded now; his lack of experience had meant he let them back him up against the wall, so they started pounding on him with all they had left.

Without any opening to exploit, Terry didn't see himself walking away from this alive. But just as he was about to pass out, a flurry of vines flew out and blasted the Vulpix aside, knocking off the last few slivers of health they had left.

"Huh? You still alive?" a voice said as he looked up to see who had saved him. Before him stood a Snivy, a female one, judging from the voice, covered in scratches with a jagged wound that circled her neck and bled slightly.

"Y-yeah. I'll be fine. But your neck..." he said.

"Hm? It'll be fine, I've dealt with worse." she replied, "Much worse."

"W-what do you mean by...?" Terry started to say, but stopped himself after she gave him a glare. Whatever had happened was obviously not something she wanted to talk about.

"U-um... what's your name?" he said, trying to move onto something more elevating.

"Isn't it good manners to introduce yourself first?" she snarked.

"O-oh, um, yes, m-my name is Terry and I... **was** a human." he replied. The Snivy's eyes lit up with realization.

"Human, huh? So I'm not the only one. I'm Cereza. Been here a week." she said.

Terry breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, phew! A-another human. I just got here, m-myself."

"Hm. Well, nice meeting you." Cereza turned on her foot and began walking away.

"W-wait! Shouldn't w-we stick together?" Terry shouted. Cereza turned to face him. Stick together with this stuttering mess? Not her style.

"Sorry, kiddo. The situation I'm in right now is a bit too hot for you to handle." she said, trying as hard as she could to be polite.

"P-please? You're the o-only one I can really trust. Everyone else has tried t-to attack me." Terry said, practically begging to join her. Cereza sighed. The kid would probably follow her anyway, and another fighter couldn't hurt.

"...Fine. But try to keep up. I can't exactly stay here for long, if you catch my drift." Cereza replied. The two of them hurried from the clearing as quickly as they could.

* * *

Location - Noblesse Woods 2F

That little BITCH. How **dare** she run off like that!? How **did** she run off like that!? When he found her he was going to smash her into the floor and drag her back if it killed him. No one crosses Persian and lives! Not anymore.


	2. Classist Undertones

Chapter 2 - Classist Undertones

Location - Outside the Noblesse Woods

Terry and Cereza left the forest into a large valley littered with boulders and dotted with trees. The sun hung low in the sky.

"T-thank Arceus. We survived." Terry sighed a breath of relief and lay down about as well as a goo ball could. Cereza sat down on the ground and touched her neck scar.

"We're not exactly safe yet, though. We're sitting ducks out in the open like this." Cereza said, breathing heavily. Had she been going on pure willpower the whole time? Terry was not sure exactly what had happened, but knew that in order to injure her like that, it must have been very exhausting and painful.

"W-why don't we set up camp over there?" Terry said, looking at a rocky outcropping that would hide them from anyone exiting the forest.

"Set up camp with **what** , exactly? We don't have any bedding or food or... anything, really." Cereza asked.

"...Well, t-the grass is soft, and we can pick fruit from the trees." Terry replied. He was not sure if the trees bore fruit, but was so tired he did not care if he starved to death.

"Eaugh. Sleeping on the ground. I've had my fill of that. But I don't think we have any other options." Cereza and Terry worked up the strength to walk over to the outcropping and hide behind it. There they lay down for a bit to regain their strength and set up camp. Cereza, being the only one with arms, gathered up as much grass as she could and made it into a pair of beds. Meanwhile, Terry shook trees searching for fruit. He found it alot harder than he originally thought it would be because it turned out most of the trees were **not** fruit-bearing. He managed to find two apples and some medium-sized branches for a campfire. Nowhere near enough for them to subsist on, but it would have to do.

That night, Terry found it hard to sleep. His mind was too full of unanswered questions. Why was he picked for all this? Who exactly was Cereza? What was she running from? Does it want just her or would it want him, too? With no answers in sight, he lay awake on his grass bed and stared at the moon, then looked to his side to see how well Cereza was sleeping. She slept like had not done so for more than a day and obviously welcomed the sandman's influence over her mind. Her neck still looked a bit raw, and she was surely as hungry as he was, but right now, she didn't seem to care. She just looked happy to finally have a chance to sleep. Seeing her so tired made him tired, too, and he finally found it in himself to sleep for the night.

* * *

The next morning...

Terry found himself being woken by Cereza, who was throwing pebbles at him.

"C'mon, wake up! We have to go, now!" she whispered urgently.

"Huh, wh-whuh...?" Terry murmured, trying to wake himself up. he shook his head from side to side to get the sleep out of his eyes, and turned to face Cereza, who was looking behind the outcrop.

"W-what's wrong? W-why are you throwing rocks at me?" he asked.

"Look there!" she said, pointing at the entrance to the forest. There, a Persian looked from side to side with a scowl on his face. He was holding a black collar in his mouth and obviously looking for something, or perhaps some **one**.

"Is t-that who you were running from?" Terry asked in a hushed voice.

"Yes. He tried to sell me into slavery. And I get the feeling he won't give up looking for me. We have to go, now!" Cereza replied, as quickly and quietly as possible. She knew they wouldn't be able to take him in a straight up fight. They had to find a place to run to, and fast.

"U-uh, okay, this w-way!" Terry said, and the two of them ran off, away from the forest. They ran as fast as they could, but with little the food they could find from the trees they passed by, it felt like everything was against them. Going off pure adrenaline, they had no clue where the Persian was, but they didn't dare stop running for fear of him attacking them. Eventually, they thought they'd get a break when they found a dirt road they could follow to find a town, but then...!

"Ha! **There** you are!" shouted a voice Terry did not recognize, but Cereza knew all too well. Turning to face where the voice was coming from, she took a Pay Day attack and fell

"Cereza!" Terry cried out, running over to her side. He was tired, he was hungry, but he would never abandon someone.

"Aw, that's cute. You found a boyfriend in a nobleman. That won't save you from me, bitch!" the Persian said, walking slowly toward them. Cereza stumbled to her feet and readied her vines.

"I don't need saving." she said.

"Y-yeah! I-it's you who needs saving!" Terry added. Cereza facepalmed. She couldn't get over how dorky this kid was... if he **was** a kid, that is.

"Nice comeback, slimey. Let's see if you can fight better than you boast!" the Persian shouted.

* * *

The Persian charged forward. Terry tried to shoot bubbles, but a sick feeling in his intestines took over and what came out instead was a brilliant purple blaze of Dragon Breath. The Persian leaped over the flames as Cereza readied herself for his pounce, but he landed just short of her on purpose and struck at her with Fury Swipes. Knocking her aside, he turned to Terry and threw a Pay Day attack at him. Terry shot a Dragon Breath attack again, incinerating the coins as they flew into the flames. Meanwhile, Cereza had gotten back up and was running toward them. The Persian kept throwing coins at Terry, barraging him with attacks, until Cereza started whipping him with her vines. He turned and swatted her aside with Fury Swipes again, but Terry took the chance to Dragon Breath him, again. The Persian tried to turn again, but found his body would not respond to him. Paralysis had him in it's tingly jaws, and he was a sitting duck for Terry and Cereza's onslaught. Cereza shot Leaf Tornadoes and Vine Whipped him as hard as she could, while Terry Tackled him and sucked him dry with Absorb. Eventually, the Persian couldn't take it anymore and collapsed.

* * *

"Huff... huff... H-how's that?!" Terry shouted. Cereza didn't bother with a victory shout and instead walked over to the unconscious Persian and rummaged through his bag.

"Terry, look at all this!" she said, relieving the Persian of his things.

"There's food, and money, and all kinds of stuff!" she added.

"But if we take it, h-how will he...?" Terry started, but Cereza slapped him in the face.

"He's a slaverunner, Terry! He gave me this scar! What makes you think he deserves any kind of mercy?" she shouted.

"I j-just... L-look, let's just hear his story, okay?" Terry said. Even if he was a slaverunnner, he had to have some reason for doing what he did, right?

"Why should we? We ran ourselves ragged trying to escape him and now you want to make friends with him?!" Cereza yelled.

"B-because he's awake." Terry said. "I think your shouting woke him up." the Persian had indeed woken up and was trying to stand, but was too beaten up to do so.

"Rrrgh... What are you two doing? Go. You win." the Persian said, as if resigned to his fate.

"Um, we won, s-so, doesn't that mean we get to m-make demands?" Terry said. Cereza facepalmed again. She couldn't believe what this kid was trying.

"Fine. What is it you want?" the Persian replied, pouting a bit.

"Your s-story. Why are you trying to enslave us?" Terry asked.

"You really wanna know? Fine. It's because I'm a commoner." the Persian said.

"A c-commoner?" Terry asked, curious.

"Yeah. I'm a dime-a-dozen. I'm treated like shit wherever I go because I'm not a rare Pokémon like you are." the Persian explained.

"O-oh geez, that sounds awful!" Terry exclaimed.

"Cry me a river..." said Cereza, munching on trail mix and tuning the rest of the conversation out. She couldn't care less about what sob-story this creep spun and just wanted to have a roof over her head.

"No duh. Now what, you gonna spit on me?" the Persian asked.

"N-no! That would be the worst! Y-you don't deserve that kind of cruelty, you've been through e-enough." Terry said, exasperated.

"...You're kidding right? In this world, status is everything. No one of your stature would dare treat me as an equal." the Persian said.

"I'm n-not kidding! In fact, I t-think you should come with us!" Terry exclaimed. Cereza spat out her trail mix.

"You **do** want to make friends with him! Are you some kind of idiot?! He'll sell us out the first chance he gets!" Cereza shouted.

"C-Cereza, t-that kind of attitude condemned him to this kind of work, if he acts out of line, I-I'll roast him myself." Terry said. Cereza twitched with anger. Out of all his antics, this was the worst yet. She hated that cat with a burning passion, and yet... she needed Terry. He had proven himself capable enough in combat, and she would be swept away by slavers again if she didn't travel with him, no doubt.

"Fine. I'll let you do this. But just to show you how badly it'll go for you." she said, trying to make sure everyone knew their place.

"You really mean this, Slimey?" the Persian said.

"Y-yes. I do. If what you say is true, th-this world needs heroes." Terry said. He wasn't the type to volunteer himself for heroism like this, but since no one else seemed to care, he figured he had to.

"Heroes... then you have my loyalty." the Persian replied.

"G-Great! Then you need a name. H-howzabout... Erin?" Terry suggested.

"Erin... I like it." the Persian said. The two kept talking for the longest time. Something about the little goo ball reminded him of himself back when he was a kid. Back before he knew the truth about this world. But this kid... he knew the truth about it too. Erin had made sure of that. And despite that, he's kept his youthful cheeriness and fights for his ideals. Something about that made him feel at ease, like he could trust the kid.

"And that's why I'm gonna stick with him." thought Erin.

"I'm surrounded by idiots..." Cereza said.


	3. Hive of Scum and Villainy

Chapter 3 - Hive of Scum and Villainy

Location - Crossroads

"So, what's the map say, Green?" Erin asked, they had been travelling down the road for a good long while now, a few days at least, and now a three way fork in the road presented itself. Cereza, as the only one with arms, had been delegated the item carrier.

"My name is **Cereza**." she said, with barely restrained anger, "And the only city near here is straight ahead. Some place called Riero City." Erin knew Riero all too well. You won't find a sleazier city on this side of the planet. He had never been there himself, but word travels.

"I-I say we head there." Terry said, "It would be n-nice not to sleep on the ground."

"You... really don't want to go there. Word on the street says it's practically falling apart." Erin warned.

"Well, I need an **Arceus-damned** drink and I'm not about to take up moonshining." Cereza said, "We're going to Riero and that's that." Erin gave an exasperated sigh. He was really not looking forward to this, but he had pledged his loyalty to Terry, and there was no overturning that.

As they made their way toward Riero, Cereza thought to herself about this situation she found herself in. Terry was an idiot and Erin couldn't be trusted. That much was obvious. So why did she continue to hang out with them? Why did she let him join her in the first place? Maybe it was because she wanted to protect him? That seemed to be the most likely case. Something about the way he carried himself, the way he stuttered when he talked. He seemed like someone's lost little brother and that let him sway others.

"S-so, what's this about me being n-nobility?" Terry asked, not exactly feeling noble. It's hard to feel noble when someone you consider a friend is really angry at you for making friends with someone they didn't like.

"You're a shiny, right? That means you're a noble. It's considered your right to lord over Pokémon, and most cities have a noble who leads it." Erin explained, "Though many of them aren't that good at it."

"So it's society's fault we get asshats like you?" Cereza said, unable to hold herself back any longer, "Asshats who try to crush anyone and anything beneath their heel and expect everything to be fine and dandy when someone says 'stop fighting'?!"

"C-Cereza..." Terry started, but Erin talked over him.

"Look, I apologized and I'm going with you to Riero even though I really don't want to. I don't know what else I can do to make it up to you!" he said. This inopportune outburst of hers rubbed him the wrong way. Even if he **did** try to enslave her, there's not much you can do to make up for that within the first few hours you're teamed up with someone!

"E-Erin..." again, Terry tried to speak again, but nobody seemed to have heard him.

"Oh I don't know, how about you go away and never bother us again?" Cereza shouted, "We don't need you!"

"I'm not abandoning Terry. I promised myself I'd stay loyal to the first person to show me decency and I'm not about to go back on that now!" Erin countered.

"Like I'd believe that! You'll betray us the first chance you get!" Cereza yelled.

" **STOP ARGUING! PLEASE!** " Terry cried out. Cereza and Erin turned to face him. Tears were running down his face.

"This... _sniff_...this s-sucks. This sucks **so hard**! The p-people I like hate each other and I can't do an **Arceus-damned** thing about it!" Terry sobbed, feeling the worst he'd felt yet. He hated it when people he liked yelled at each other.

There was a long pause in which Cereza and Erin looked at each other, then back at Terry, then back at each other. Nobody spoke for ages, but everyone looked like they had something they needed to say immediately.

"We'll continue this later." Cereza eventually said, "Don't talk to me until we get to the city."

"Fine. Whatever." replied Erin, and the party continued onward to Riero. Terry cried for an entire half hour afterwards.

* * *

Location - Riero City

By the time the party had made it's way to Riero, the sun had begun to set, darkening the already dark alleyways and giving the place a rather hostile atmosphere. The buildings looked like they had been cobbled together from assorted debris and detritus laying around and the road was covered in broken glass and papers. Pokémon shuffled about under the gloom, whispering secrets as if everyone else was some kind of threat. An unpleasant stench like vomit and mold permeated most of the air and made Cereza gag a bit.

"Here we are, Riero City. A bigger slum than any other." Erin said.

"I-I can see why you didn't want to come here, Erin." Terry commented, "I-it feels like at any moment w-we might be attacked."

"Let's just find an inn or something." Cereza added, "I can't take the stink any longer."

They made their way through the city and eventually stopped at a sleazy motel. The sign had since rusted over and one of the walls had a big hole in it, but it had a bar a reasonable distance away from it and stank significantly less than the rest of the city, so they checked in and headed to the bar. When they got there, they found what seemed to be a Golurk bouncer guarding the place.

"Let us in." Cereza said to the bouncer, who looked her over.

"SCANNING... NO COMMONERS ALLOWED." it said.

"Excuse me?" Cereza replied. She was not in the mood for any more Tauros-shit.

"NO. COMMONERS. ALLOWED." the bouncer enunciated in a very irritating fashion.

"So this is supposed to be some expensive bar for the higher ups?" Cereza asked,

"AFFRIMATIVE." the bouncer said. Cereza clenched her fist tight and gritted her teeth. If this was what passed for upper class,

"Cereza, l-let's just go." Terry said. The last thing he wanted was a fight.

"You listen here you stony **shit**. I want an Arceus-damn drink and I will get it whether your fat ass complies with my request. You do **not** want to know what will happen if you don't comply." Cereza said, with equal parts hostility and desperation.

"THREAT DETECTED. ENGAGING COMBAT MODE." it said. Cereza sighed scornfully. Why was it that everyone wanted to do things the hard way?

The bouncer opened with a Shadow Punch barrage, decking Cereza in the chest and Terry in the face, sending them reeling in opposite directions. Erin, being a Normal type, was left unscathed, and he leapt for the bouncer's face, sinking his teeth into it with a Bite.

"OPTIC OBSTRUCTION. ATTEMPTING REMOVAL." the bouncer said, making grabs at the Persian. Terry and Cereza regained their senses and charged forward to take advantage of the opening. Cereza chucked Leech Seeds, which stuck into the Golurk's hip and started draining its health, and Terry followed suit, using Absorb to suck the bouncer dry. The Golurk eventually grabbed Erin and threw him to ground, then pounded him with a Mega Punch. Erin recovered and attacked with Feint Attack, creating an opening in which Terry shot Dragon Breath attacks and Cereza blew Leaf Tornadoes. Suddenly, the Golurk stomped the ground, performing a Magnitude attack, hitting the whole party; but then, there was a shaking sound and before anyone could react, the bar and the buildings next to it collapsed into piles of rubble.

"No...!" Cereza said, reaching her hand out in futility. All that beer, gone! A funny feeling swelled up in her heart. She was angry, yes, but not heated. It was the kind of angry that made you whisper instead of shout, and act instead of say. There was no way this guy was an actual bouncer. Too powerful. Hiring a guy who could destroy your business with relative ease was too risky for anyone to consider.

"Now it's **fun**." Erin whispered. A fight this difficult always made him feel tingly inside. Obviously he'd get angry if they managed to subvert him, or simply refused to give up, like Green, but he loved it when a fight was hard enough to challenge him. The tension in his muscles, the adrenaline pumping through his veins, it all felt so **good**. And he wanted more.

"But all those Pokémon...!" Terry shouted. A pang of guilt swept through him. Pokémon who had nothing to do with him had gotten caught up in his struggles. Even if Cereza started the fight, he still felt like it was his fault it started. That he should've tried harder to stop her from starting it. That maybe she would've listened to someone else. He had to redeem himself, and he knew just how to do it. He had to stop this guy.

With their health in the red, they made one last stand. The Golurk closed the distance and readied a Mach Punch, but at the last second, all three of them put everything they could into a single attack. Cereza shot a Leaf Tornado, Terry blew Dragon Breath, and Erin used Bite, the three in perfect sync with each other, and all four clashed at once.

When the dust cleared, all parties involved stood perfectly still. Muscles tense, body stiff, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"SYSTEM ERR...OR..." The Golurk sputtered, breaking the silence and collapsing on the ground.

"Looks like we win." Cereza said, breathing heavily. She was not sure how much longer she could've kept fighting.

"G-good, now help me search through the rubble, w-we need to look for survivors." Terry said.

"And beer. Lots of beer." Cereza added.

All three combed through the rubble as well they could given their condition, but turned up with very little, aside from a few relatively undamaged bottles of an alcoholic beverage called "Gummi Brew", and bodies. Lots of bodies. Every one Terry saw made him feel worse, compounding on his already shaky hopes, but then, he heard a moaning noise coming from under some debris. He moved as fast as he could toward where the noise was coming from, and found a still living Seel trapped under part of the collapsed ceiling.

"Cereza! Erin! There's someone alive over here!" Terry shouted. And together, they pulled him out and brought him back to on of their rooms at the inn, which thankfully managed to stay standing, even if a number of things inside had been knocked over and the Pokémon inside were hiding under furniture. They plopped the Seel on one of the beds and had a long talk about what had just happened.

"Anyone else think that guy was a little too strong for a bouncer? No one would hire a guy if they were worried he'd level the building." Cereza started.

"That **is** a bit suspiscious... we can ask the guy we rescued." Erin said.

"I-I'm just upset we weren't able to save more..." Terry moped.

"Look, we saved a guy, beat the shit out of the guy who killed the others, and we're knocking back booze. I don't know what else you want." Cereza said. Terry looked at his untouched bottle of Gummi Brew. It's a bit hard to drink with no arms. In fact, it's a bit hard to do many things without arms. He could shake trees by ramming into them, yes, but anything doing anything delicate was right out.

"Well, you **did** provoke him..." Erin replied. He had not touched his drink, either.

"Don't you start, now!" Cereza shouted, "I needed to forget for a moment and he got in my way." She had not had a drink since she had come to this place a week ago, and had been too busy skirting with the dangers in it to have any time for one. Her love of alcohol had been the one memory she kept aside from her name when she woke up back then, and going without it for as long as she had made her irritable. More so than usual.

"T-there's going to be investigations, y-you know. A building doesn't just c-collapse by itself." Terry said, "And if that guy w-wasn't a bouncer, what was he?"

"Part of a conspiracy, I'll bet." Cereza said, "But conjecture won't get us anywhere. Our only source on the 'bouncer' is out cold, so let's just sit down and drink our Arceus-damn drinks, alright?"

"Slimey's right, though. What law there is here is incredibly draconian." Erin replied, "If what you say is true, we're dead meat. We'll be executed for attacking an official."

"So what, should we just indulge ourselves and wait for the secret police?" Cereza asked. She was all for another round of drinks, but there was no way she'd let herself be someone's prisoner again.

"There is **one** thing we can do. Form a team." Erin said.

"A t-team? Like, a r-rescue team?" Terry asked.

"Sort of. The technical term is 'vassalage team'." Erin explained, "If you led us in one of those, Slimey, we'd be able to use your nobility to give us immunity to certain types of prosecution. We wouldn't be able to commit crimes in your name... but we'd be able to go places where normally only you could go, and if anyone tried to give us flak for it..."

"We could kick their ass?" Cereza asked. While she normally would reject any idea that had her serve someone, if it meant a license to smack others around if they pissed her off, it would all be worth it.

"Yes. Vassalage teams were devised as a way for normally weak nobles to exercise control over things. A notable and particularly large one is Team Ocean, headed by a shiny Corsola. Others include-" Erin began, but Terry, fearing for time, cut him off. The police could barge in at any moment.

"Y-yes, um... I say we f-form one." he said, almost literally pushing the conversation to its destination.

"But what to call it? Team Misfits?" Cereza asked.

"T-that. We'll c-call it that. T-team Misfits." Terry said, very fast.

"You sure about that?" Erin said, "I'll throw a message to the Pelippers, but that name's kind of..."

"It's fine, we just need to be a team, right? It's better to pick a name that's less likely to be taken." Terry replied.

"Fine, fine, we're Team Misfits." Erin said. "I'll write up an application for us."

"You do that. I'm gonna sit here and chug." Cereza said, taking a large swig of Gummi Brew, "Oh, that's strong..."


	4. (Intermission) Those Up Above

Intermission 1 - Those Up Above

Location - Feiryn Castle

The room bustled with activity as party-goers moved about, chatted, drank, and ate. Today was the monthly Birthright Celebration. Today, nobles from all across the land would come to Feiryn and partake of the savoriest foods, the oldest wines, and the most beautiful views. Most of the lowborn commoners saw the party as a metaphorical kick in the face, but they knew nothing of the struggles that those with a pedigree must face. The expectations, the standards they must set for others... the common folk had it easy in comparison. These are the thoughts that went through the Houndoom's head as he sampled a glass of Fine Wonder and relaxed amongst his peers. He was so relaxed that he barely registered his Rampardos friend attempting to make conversation with him.

"Oh, hang on, what was that you were saying?" he said, snapping out of his fugue.

"Nothing you'd need to concern yourself with, just some news about Riero." the Rampardos said. He was in one of his moods again, and that usually meant something was wrong.

"That pile of trash? There's always something tearing that place up, c'mon, cheer up." the Houndoom replied.

"It's just... I sent one of my elites there to ensure the liquor laws were being followed, and, well... let's just say he won't be in action for a long time." the Rampardos continued, "And to think, a group of children did it!" At this, the Houndoom perked up. Children strong enough to take down one of Team Fossil's finest? Unbelievable. He had to know more.

"Children that tough? Not possible. I think he's fibbing you." the Houndoom said, "Riero natives are so puny that most adults there can't fend for themselves, except for the few who take up guard duty."

"That's the thing, they weren't natives. They just showed up one day and thrashed Golurk senseless. And worse yet... one of them was nobility." the Rampardos moped, seemingly indifferent to the audacity of the story he was telling. A noble child hanging out in such a shady place? One with enough manpower to take down elite soldiers? Whoever this kid was, he was a threat. He needed to be stopped, quick.

"If you're that upset, let me help you out. I'll send some of my men to Riero, and we'll take these kids in for questioning." the Houndoom said, "We'll find out what happened and we'll punish them appropriately."

"Would you? I don't think I can trust my own strength here." the Rampardos said. He was a perfectly strong individual, but he lacked confidence and didn't have it in him to really fight, so he usually relied on his vassalage team and his soldiers for combat.

"I would. What are friends for?" the Houndoom said.


End file.
